Book Review

Introduction/General about the book

Title : Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Author : Lewis Caroll Date first edition : 1865 Genre : The genre of the story is not clear or obvious : it is a fantasy story with a bit of humour, because Lewis Caroll makes puns and nonsense in the story. However, it can also be a biography because the author was inspired by a real person and makes allusions to his life.

Setting
Describe the time and place of the story : The story takes place in an unknown city in England. We can suppose that it is in Oxford because that is where Lewis Caroll met Alice Liddel, the girl who will become his inspiration for the main character in the story. They met at the Christ Church College of Oxford, where her father was the dean. The time of the story is the 19th century. Comment about the setting : The setting makes the story exciting : we always want to read more, to know what will happen next and how it will end. The setting has an important function in this story : it makes the story attractive and gripping. Futhermore, the plot is unexpected.

Main character
Main character : Alice is the main character. Lewis Caroll was inspired by Alice Lidell. Describe the character : In the story Alice is a cute little girl. She is presented like someone a bit naive, but also very curious and intelligent. She loves animals, especially her cat Dinah. Moreover, Lewis Caroll insists on the fact that Alice is greedy because he makes her eat cakes.

Other character
It is difficult to present the other characters in the story because they only are present for short periods of time and we don't know exactly who they are and what they do. However, I

will present some of the characters who appear frequently. (All the animals speak like humans and are crazy.) Another character : Herault. Details: Herault is a white rabbit. He always is stressed and frequently looks at his watch. He works at the courthouse. Another charater : The caterpillar. Details : She is blue, smokes a long hookah and lives on a large mushroom. Another character : The cheschire cat. Details : It is a cat who has many teeth and very long claws. He always smiles and can vanish and appear as he likes. He growls when he is happy and waves his tail when he is angry. Another character : The hatter. Details : Because the hatter had beaten time long ago when he has sung, time has stopped for him and it is always his tea-time. He always has a teacup and a piece of bread-and-butter in hands where ever he goes. Another character : The Queen of Hearts. Details : She always cries : ''Off with his head !'', when someone does something she doesn't like. (For example, when someone beats her in a croquet game.) She loves playing croquet with living hedgehogs as croquet balls and living flamingoes as mallets.

Theme
In my opinion Lewis Caroll is trying to say that fantasy, creation and imagination are important in life. From this story I learned that we have to preserve our childre's soul all life. In this book Lewis Caroll pass us his universe on : he shows us an imaginary world, Wonderland, created by him to divert a child.There isn't a moral in the story.

The Action
After having followed a white rabbit, Alice fell in a vast hole and arrived in a world where animals talk. There, she met a little mouse, a duck, a dodo and an eaglet. Then, she drank a bottle and became as tall as a house. After, she met a caterpillar who was smoking a long hookah. He returned her to her original size. Alice spoke with the Cheshire cat and understood that everybody in Wonderland is mad. Then, she met the March Hare and the Hatter who were, as usual, drinking tea and making bad jokes. Since they were impolite, Alice left them and went to the Queen of Hearts' garden. There, she played Croquet with the King and the Queen, using living hedgehogs as croquet balls and living flamingoes as mallets. Finally, she assisted in judging the person who had stolen the Queen's tarts. Then, Alice woke up and realised it was just a dream.

Evaluation of the book

The book is very easy to read and very interesting, because it is like a fairy tale, even if the story is a bit absurd. I found some parts very strange, especially the part with the caterpillar who smokes a hookah. I didn't like that sometimes Alice met characters that added nothing to the story, like the little dog that appears in the chapter IV. The story wasn't predictable at all, because the actions were unexpected.